Binka Le Breton is a statuesque blonde with fiercely intelligent features and a striking resemblance to Vanessa Redgrave. She looks as if she should be declaiming Shakespeare rather than ranching in a remote corner of Brazil.
But the British-born author has lived in Brazil for the past 18 years — one of several similarities that prompted her to write a biography of Dayton-born Sister Dorothy Stang. "Like Dorothy, I found myself working on new ways of caring for forests and forest people, and like Dorothy, I believe that God is good," Le Breton writes.
On Tuesday night — the third anniversary of the murder of the 73-year-old nun in the Amazon rainforest — Le Breton will appear at 7 p.m. at Books & Co. at The Greene. She'll be speaking about "The Greatest Gift: The Courageous Life and Martyrdom of Sister Dorothy Stang," recently published by Doubleday.
Although both women were deeply involved in the struggle to preserve the Amazon rainforest, they talked on the phone only a few times and never met in person. The town of Anapu, where Stang lived and worked, is several days' rugged travel from Le Breton's home in the Atlantic rainforest in southeastern Brazil. She serves as director of the Iracambi Research Center, which promotes biodiversity conservation, sustainable farming and human rights.
"The book makes no pretense of being a definitive biography," Le Breton writes. The archival material at the Sisters of Notre Dame motherhouse in Cincinnati, she said, would fill several books. She focused instead on Stang's life in the context of the violent land struggles in the Amazon. Readers looking for insights into her early life, however, won't come away disappointed. Chapter Two features a 14-page description of Stang's early life in Dayton, where she was born the fourth of nine children in a devout German Catholic family.
Dorothy's oldest sibling, well-known Dayton Realtor Jim Stang, died last Sunday, at 82, after a long illness. At his funeral, Le Breton's book was proudly displayed along with photos from Stang's service in the Navy during World War II.
The book has garnered enthusiastic praise from the extended Stang family. David Stang of Palmer Lake, Colo., has traveled extensively to Brazil to serve as the family's spokesman. He said the book benefits greatly from Le Breton's mastery of Portuguese, as well as her knowledge of the Brazilian class system and political situation. "She has a real feel for the people of Brazil," Stang said. "She captured the sense of loss that the people felt."
Le Breton has written extensively about human rights violations in Brazil in her previous books, including "A Land to Die For and Trapped: Modern-Day Slavery in the Brazilian Amazon."
"Binka has written about other martyrs," David Stang said. "She understands the pain and suffering of the powerless. That's important, because that's what Dorothy felt every day."
http://www.daytondailynews.com/o/content/oh/story/opinions/columns/2008/02/09/ddn021008mary.html
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